Running Towards Gunfire
Courage and Brotherhood in Ramadi
In August 2005, a four-man team from the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) found themselves smack in the middle of the deadliest city on earth, Ramadi, Iraq. For the next seven months, they fought street by street against an insurgency that only grew more deadly.
They would eventually join up with snipers from the US Army’s famed 1-506th to form Task Force Dark Eagle. Casting aside interservice rivalries, road bound gun trucks, and conventional operations, these marines and soldiers became the ones hiding in the shadows, hunting insurgents from their own homes.
Running Towards Gunfire is a gritty, no-holds-barred first-person account of the realities of modern urban combat, bringing the reader onto the streets of Ramadi and into the minds of combat marines as they fight for each other and their brothers-in-arms during some of the most savage fighting of the Iraq War.
Read the Introduction
In an instant, time stopped. I heard no sounds. I felt no movement. My mind focused squarely on the flash that had ripped a hole in the
darkness. After almost seven months in Iraq, I instinctively knew what was happening in those milliseconds, but strangely, I questioned it.
What the fuck is that?
The explosion was so close that I had no time to blink before the gut-wrenching concussion slammed into our vehicle, instantly followed by the loud clap of the detonation echoing through the urban canyon. Shrapnel peppered our gun truck. I was thrown to the left as the blast picked up our vehicle and dropped it back down in the middle of the road.
As quickly as the blast had come, it was gone, leaving us in hazy silence and confusion. Dust filled the vehicle. Stunned, no one spoke a word as we rolled forward on momentum. An odd but familiar metallic taste permeated my mouth as the pungent smell of cordite filled my nose.
I thought of my marines.
Book Reviews
At that period, …2005 and 2006, Ramadi gained notoriety as the most dangerous place on the face of the earth. Jason Angell served there, and he served with great honor and distinction as a member of a Marine ANGLICO team. This is his story.
“If you want to read about combat in Iraq at the boots-on-the-ground level, this book is for you. Jason Angell has penned a plainspoken, tough but compassionate story about the Marines in his unit. Their courage, their fears, and their hopes. Operating daily in a difficult place against a brutal but worthy adversary, they never quit, never faltered, and most importantly, never stopped believing in each other. None of us came back the same from the fight, but the great majority served well, with courage, honor and virtue. This is their story.”
– General Robert Neller (Ret.) 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps
A superbly written story that shares the gut-wrenching emotion of combat and how U.S. Marines and soldiers, bent by war, fought and survived in the deadliest city on earth.
-Major Scott A. Huesing USMC (Ret)
Bestselling Author | Echo in Ramadi
Supporting Veterans Organizations
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to various veteran’s organizations such as The Semper Fi Fund and the PTSD Foundation of America.